Agrobiodiversity and the Law

Regulating Genetic Resources, Food Security and Cultural Diversity
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84971-372-6
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 348 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 719 g

A wide range of crop genetic resources is vital for future food security. Loss of agricultural biodiversity increases the risk of relying on a limited number of staple food crops. However, many laws, such as seed laws, plant varieties protection and access and benefit-sharing laws, have direct impacts on agrobiodiversity, and their effects have been severely underestimated by policy-makers. This is of concern not only to lawyers, but also to agronomists, biologists, and social scientists, all of whom need clear guidance as to the relevance of the law to their work.

This book analyzes the impact of the legal system on agrobiodiversity (or agricultural biodiversity) – the diversity of agricultural species, varieties, and ecosystems. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it takes up the emerging concept of agrobiodiversity and its relationship with food security, nutrition, health, environmental sustainability, and climate change. It assesses the impacts on agrobiodiversity of key legal instruments, including seeds laws, the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, plant breeders’ rights, the Convention on Biological Diversity (regarding specifically its impact on agrobiodiversity), and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

It also reviews the options for the implementation of these instruments at the national level in several countries. It discusses the interfaces between the free software movement, the ‘commons’ movement, and seeds, as well as the legal instruments to protect cultural heritage and their application to safeguard agrobiodiversity-rich systems. Finally, it analyzes the role of protected areas and the possibility of using geographical indications to enhance the value of agrobiodiversity products and processes.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Santilli, Juliana

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Primärer Sektor Agrarökonomie, Ernährungswirtschaft
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Biodiversität
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Medizin- und Gesundheitsrecht Lebens- und Futtermittelrecht
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltverschmutzung, Umweltkriminalität, Umweltrecht

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Tables. About the author. List of Acronyms and Abbreviations. Acknowledgements. Preface. 1. Agrobiodiversity: a concept in construction. 2. Agrobiodiversity and food security, nutrition, health, social equality and environmental sustainability. 3. Agobiodiversity and climate change. 4. Seed Laws: the paradigms of industrial agriculture, traditional/local agricultural systems and agrobiodiversity. 4.1. Seed laws in Latin American countries. 4.2. The Brazilian seed law and traditional, local and Creole plant varieties. 4.3. The European directives on conservation varieties, the Italian regional laws and seed laws in Switzerland and Norway. 5. The Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants ans the UPOV System: the protection of intellectual property rights over plant varieties. 5.1. History. 5.2. The UPOV Convention: main concepts. 5.3. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPS), of the World Trade Organization (WTO). 5.4. U.S. Patents on plant varieties: utility patents and plant patents. 5.5. No European patents for essentially biological breeding processes: the broccoli and the tomato cases. 5.6. The 1978 and 1991 Acts of the UPOV Convention: main differences. 5.7. Some countries that said NO to UPOV. 5.8. Patents and the UPOV system: compulsory cross-licences. 6. Access and benefit-sharing laws and plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: the international legal regime. 6.1. Historical background: FAO Conferences in 1961, 1967 and 1973. Discussions on ex situ and in situ conservation of plant genetic resources. 6.2. The International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources. 6.3. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and agriculture. 6.4. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. 6.5. The Nagoya Protocol and its interfaces with FAO´s International Treaty and other specialized access and benefit-sharing agreements. 7. Options for the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at the national level: main issues. 7.1. Access and Benefit-Sharing: plant genetic resources for food and agriculture found in in situ conditions. 7.2. Access and Benefit-Sharing: plant genetic resources for food and agriculture NOT included in the multilateral system and National Benefit- Sharing Funds. 7.3. Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held by state and provincial institutions. 7.4. The special legal regime of plant genetic resources found in the territories of Indigenous peoples and other ethnic minorities. 7.5. Brazilian ABS Law and plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. 7.6. Peruvian ABS law and plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. 7.7. A comparison between the Brazilian and the Peruvian ABS laws, in relation to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. 8. Farmers´rights. 8.1. Historical background and article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. 8.2. Farmers’ Rights to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds and other propagating material. 8.3. Uses of commercial plant varieties as source of diversity in farmers´ breeding: extending the breeder´s privilege to farmers. 8.4. Protection of traditional knowledge and collective benefit sharing mechanisms. 8.5. Participatory plant breeding. 8.6. Farmers´ political participation. 8.7. India's Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act and the new Seed Bill. 8.8. Farmers´Rights in the African Unity Model Law and in Ethiopian Proclamations. 9. Animal genetic resources for food and agriculture: access and benefit-sharing and livestock breeders´ rights. 1

Über Autor(innen)

Santilli, Juliana
Juliana Santilli is a lawyer and federal public prosecutor in Brazil, specialized in Environmental and Cultural Heritage Law and Public Policies. She has a PhD in Environmental Law, and has participated in research programmes in both Brazil and internationally. She is also an associate researcher in Environmental Law at the University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development, and is a co-founding member of the Brazilian public interest organization Instituto Socioambiental.

Juliana Santilli is a lawyer and public prosecutor in the Federal District of Brazil, specialized in Environmental and Cultural Heritage Law and Public Policies. She has a PhD in Environmental Law, and is an associate researcher in Environmental Law at the University of Brasília Center for Sustainable Development. She is a co-founding member of the Brazilian civil society organization Instituto Socioambiental.